The last thing you want to do is bring that polarization into your company.”Īnd while the speakers criticized those in Silicon Valley seeking to punish billionaire Peter Thiel for his support and financial backing of Donald Trump, their criticism (interestingly) drew no applause.
#Alaunch scale 2016 free#
Jason Demant of Bento discusses the company’s successful business model change. (Photo by JD Lasica) Trump, Clinton and free speechĭavid Sacks, former founder of Yammer and now CEO of Zenefits, answered Jason’s question about Trump’s election this way: “The country is very polarized right now. I don’t recommend making your employees scared.” On the other hand, if your employees are expecting a 9-to-5 culture, “they might as well go to IBM or Cisco.” “If there’s a trap door beneath your chair, you’ll create a culture of fear. “Don’t be afraid to change, but don’t change too drastically and rip everything up, which creates distrust.”ĭon’t routinely discard employees who aren’t superstars. “But you can’t just copy and paste, because you’re not Tony Hsieh and Zappos.” Hsieh famously said, “Zappos is a customer service company that happens to sell shoes.” “Pick things from other companies that you love and put them into your own company,” she said.
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“Too many (direct) reports equals death.” Once you get past a half dozen or two folks who report to you, it’s time to figure out how to spread out the responsibilities.
It hurts them when they move on and can’t get another job because they have a title they haven’t earned.”ĭelegate. “Take the feedback and try to become a better leader,” she said.īe stingy with titles, or be flat with your organizational hierarchy. Enable 360-degree feedback and make sure you listen to criticism from your team members. Take the feedback and try to become a better leader.ĭo weekly check-ins. Here are a few highlights and takeaways that founders who weren’t able to attend should find useful.īe open to criticism from your team members. This year’s event, held Monday and Tuesday at BeSpoke in Westfield Centre in San Francisco, drew a few hundred founders to hear speakers such as angels/VCs Christine Tsai, Josh Elman, Cyan Banister, Jonathon Triest, CEOs David Sacks of Zenefits, Glenn Kelman of Redfin, Stacey Ferreira of Forge, James Siminoff of Ring, Mei Siauw of LeadIQ, author/futurist Robert Scoble and others. (I’m the co-founder and CEO of Cruiseable.)
And the past couple of years, I’ve attended Launch Scale, a free invitation-only event put on by Jason Calacanis to provide startup founders with insights from industry leaders and fellow founders. Target audience: Startup founders and teams, entrepreneurs, angel investors, VCs, businesses, brands, digital marketers, educators, journalists, Web publishers.Īs regular readers of know, I’ve attended every Launch conference and every TechCrunch Disrupt conference since the very first one back in 2007. (Photo by JD Lasica) Solid advice for startup founders, from startup founders Launch founder Jason Calacanis chats with Zenefits CEO David Sacks at LaunchScale.